Disney Cruise Line has finally launched their newest ship, the Disney Wish! This ship is sailing out of Port Canaveral currently with both 3 and 4 night itineraries. We opted to wait a few weeks after it started sailing to get onboard for a 4 night sailing. This ship is definitely a bit different than the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy that we’re used to, but overall we really enjoyed the ship (once we knew our way around!).

So let’s talk about food onboard this ship!

Mickey and Friends Festival of Foods

Out by the pool there is an area called Mickey and Friends Festival of Foods which offers four quick service style locations for dining. Out of the four, three offer easy to obtain vegan options. (The fourth being a bbq spot). We rarely ate where this area was as it’s basically a giant hotbox with no air movement. Just a warning!

First let’s talk about Donald’s Cantina. This is a Mexican style build your own counter option with tacos, burritos, and bowls. I spoke with the chef to find out what was vegan there and pretty much everything was aside from the pinto beans (which contained chicken, and they were willing to make it for me without that), cheese, and sour cream. There were several types of rice, black beans (which was more of a mashed up liquidish state), salsas, lettuce, and guacamole.

Next to the counter service location was a plethora of salsas and hot sauces to enjoy. The labeling on these seemed off, but we just went for the ones that seemed obviously vegan (we didn’t see any that appeared to have dairy). We got this meal twice and built bowls each time.

We found ourselves mostly eating at Daisy’s Pizza Pies because, well, pizza! The coolest part of this location is they had a vegan pizza listed on their menu! The Plant-based Sausage featured vegan sausage thinly sliced with tomatoes and vegan cheese. We got this as is a few times and also asked for it to be a plain vegan cheese pizza. They were using Follow Your Heart cheese at the time of our sailing.

Since many of the pizzas are already ready to go, they have to make the vegan pizza when you order it. It usually took 8-15 minutes to get, which is much quicker than other cruises we’ve been on! So shout out to the great guys working the pizza counter when we sailed, they were always happy to make me a pizza even when I was just walking by to go somewhere else.

Lastly was Goofy’s Grill which features burgers and hot dogs. On the menu they had the Impossible Burger and Plant-based Sausage. We asked about the buns, we were told the sausage bun wasn’t vegan, but the bun for the burger was. We didn’t bother asking again to see what was the alleged non-vegan ingredient was for the bun.

I got the sausage once and we got the burger a few times for our son. Every time they were ready immediately and we didn’t have to wait 10 minutes for them to cook it, which was honestly amazing to experience.

Marceline Market

We never dined at the buffet here, Marceline Market, as whenever we checked it out there was nothing vegan on the buffet aside from fries. We knew we could be quickly accommodated at the Mickey and Friends Festival of Foods. The one day we actually wanted to go in there to find fruit they had already closed for lunch.

During our sailing this buffet was only open for breakfast and lunch with very limited hours. So just a heads up to know!

Main Dining Rooms

During a Disney Cruise Line sailing you do what is known as rotational dining which means you dine at one of their themed restaurants each evening. We encountered a few of the menus with the plant-based logo, but many items were not labeled, which made ordering a bit harder. Additionally sometimes things were labeled on the physical menu but not on the menu on the app.

Worlds of Marvel

Our rotation started at Worlds of Marvel. Since this was night one we had pretty low expectations since we didn’t know our servers yet and we can’t pre-order food prior to getting on the ship.

We did tell our servers we’re vegan and they immediately brought us vegan butter. We then had to ask about the bread, and were given our usual sourdough rolls to enjoy before our meal. Some of them were hard and dry the whole way through, so we weren’t off to the best start here. We were given these same rolls and vegan butter each night.

Our meal started with the only vegan appetizer, the Heirloom Tomato Salad. We laughed when we got them because we figured tomatoes would be the focus, but they were not. It had about three grape tomatoes on the plate and was mostly greens with a super tart dressing. There were about 8 black beans and some soggy tortilla chips as well. I enjoyed the salad more than I thought I would, but that dressing hit hard in tartness.

The vegan entree here was Shiitake and Tofu Udon. The portion of this was huge which was welcomed. There were so many noodles in this dish that I felt like I was eating it forever. The only bit of this whole dish that had any flavor though was the tofu and we got the smallest amount of that. It was super smokey and just packed the flavor in. If the whole dish was as flavorful as the tofu this would be a winning dish for me.

It also came with some red chili flakes and some sort of oil. I put a bunch of the flakes on mine and Corey opted for the oil (oil and I aren’t friends). As a whole the dish was fine, but nothing I would dream of wanting again.

For dessert I believe they served us the Flourless Chocolate Cake. I may be wrong in that being the description, but I wasn’t told otherwise. It featured a delicious chocolate cake with vegan ice cream and a strawberry compote and some smushed Enjoy Life Snickerdoodle cookies. They also gave us a bowl of those cookies to enjoy as well.

As for the restaurant itself, it was pretty neat and just a Marvel version of the Animator’s Palate on the other ships. There was a fun storyline throughout and we even got to see Ant-Man and the Wasp in person. My one critique of the restaurant was that it was super loud. They packed us in there (this is my first cruise since minimal capacity COVID sailings so maybe I’m just feeling that!) and the videos they showed during the meal were also super loud. Overall, I really enjoyed the concept of this restaurant, but didn’t enjoy that I couldn’t talk to my table mates the entire time.

Arendelle

Our second (and third) night we dined at Arendelle which is themed as an engagement celebration for Anna and Kristoff. Prior to this meal we pre-ordered food the night before and had just requested curry to have as well as try the on menu options.

The meal here started with Blushing Oaken’s Chilled White and Green Asparagus. This is absolutely not a starter I would normally pick, but it was actually very good. The asparagus had been cooked nicely and then chilled. It had a bit of a sauce with it that complimented it well.

The next appetizer was the Nordic Cucumber, Potato & Carrot Salad. This was basically a potato salad with dijon style mustard. The potatoes were cooked well and the mustard with it was very good. The cucumbers were also enjoyable and had dill on them. I didn’t eat the other things on the plate as I wasn’t in the mood for raw shredded carrot that evening.

The vegan entree here was the Käldolmar, which were stuffed cabbage rolls with vegan ground beef and rice, with a dill yogurt drizzle. My first bite of this was very enjoyable as it was a good mix of the “beef” and the rice. The yogurt drizzle was more like a creamy sauce. I actually really enjoyed this dish but Corey wasn’t a fan. We split the entree so maybe I had the better roll.

For dessert here we weren’t sure if we got it. After we finished our entrees we received a fruit and vegan cheese plate. The cheese seemed to be just a bunch of Daiya slices (which smelled awful honestly) and the fruit was pretty unripe. I only ate the watermelon as all I could smell was the cheese. Our server came over asking about dessert while we had this plate and we said we thought this was it and also we didn’t want anymore food.

For our pre-ordered meal we got a big plate of a spinach curry with tofu, rice, and chapati. When we got this delivered the lighting inside was purple and the food looked black so we had no idea what we were about to eat. The curry was fine but really didn’t have any flavor. We’re used to super flavorful vegan curries on cruises and this wasn’t one.

As a whole this restaurant was my least favorite for a few reasons (and food not being the reason). Just like Worlds of Marvel it was very loud. There was a lot of singing and storytelling which is fine, but it went on so long you couldn’t talk with your table mates. Additionally they had the tables filled in long rows so everyone could see the show, which made it very cramped. So cramped that Corey got elbowed in the skull by our server while he was trying to navigate the aisles. It was absolutely a sensory overload for me, so I wasn’t looking forward to dining in here again for our third night, which was Pirate Night.

Pirate Night in Arendelle

Pirate Night is pretty much a staple on Disney Cruise Line. Most people dress up for the evening, there is a special (same) menu for all the restaurants, then of course the fireworks at sea that night. Since you get a different menu/experience they had us dine at the same restaurant two nights in a row to be sure to get the normal experience at each of these restaurants. So for us that meant another night at Arendelle. This menu didn’t have any plant-based logos on it so we had to ask about what we could get.

Our meal here started with the Sri Sumbhajee’s Vegetable Samosa. This was my favorite dinner item we ate the whole time. They packed the heat (my mom was struggling with it) and had a nice crispy outside with a flavorful potato and pea inside. I should have ordered another one because it was so good. This was the type of flavor/heat I was hoping for with our curries.

The other appetizer we could have was Swann’s Red and Yellow Beetroot Carpaccio. This was actually surprisingly good and featured thinly sliced beets with a mustard dressing. Again, an option I wouldn’t normally pick for myself, but having had it before I would absolutely get it again. The beets weren’t overly earthy, I feel like many people would enjoy this.

The only entree on the menu that we could modify to be vegan was the Barbary Coast Falafel by removing the yogurt. This was AWFUL. I can’t even pretend to sugar coat this. The falafel itself was so dry, we think it was one of those mixes you just add water to and bake it. The flavors were all off and the way it was just a dry crumble we couldn’t even swallow it without drinking water. A huge skip if you’re sailing on Disney Cruise Line with a pirate night.

For dessert I had requested Corey’s favorite the night before (after the elbow incident), which is the gluten free and vegan Carrot Cake! This is always my go to when sailing. It isn’t amazing in terms of texture, but the flavor is great. I always tell my clients to request this one too.

Our pre-ordered curry this evening was an eggplant curry. It was good in terms of flavor with a smokiness, but way too oily for me. We were given a much smaller portion size this time rather than the night before and no chapati. We were more specific about the type of curry we wanted this evening and they did a good job with accommodating that.

1923

Our last night we dined at 1923, which was my favorite of the restaurants. This restaurant was split in two, Roy Disney and Walt Disney, and had fun artwork and sculptures from various films and cartoons around. It was also much quieter, and lots of people dressed the part for the 1920’s which was cute to see.

Our meal here started with a Roasted Roma Tomato Soup. I was shocked that we had a vegan soup option and was stoked that it was the superior soup choice, tomato! It was topped with a vegan sourdough crostini. It was a thicker soup, and had a great flavor to it with the basil. I would happily enjoy this soup again.

The entree here was actually our favorite on the whole sailing, Moroccan-Spiced Roasted Kabocha & Butternut Squash. This dish features couscous, a cinnamon brown rice, pita, and a harissa yogurt. The flavors on this dish were strong and it had lots of textures throughout. We don’t know if we were actually given the yogurt, as it doesn’t appear to have it, but for all we knew it was mixed in somewhere.

Our dessert here was a surprise and was very good. We got a Tapioca Pudding made with coconut milk and strawberries. It was creamy and had lots of tapioca in it. The strawberries added a nice sweetness to it as well. I was super happy with this dessert as I was always a big tapioca pudding fan.

Now the fun part, we got the weirdest entree for our pre-order. This just goes to show how literal they take the pre-orders. We had once again asked for curry, but this time our server asked if we had a preference of what kind. I had suggested chickpea, and he mentioned mushroom, so we said sure (I questioned that sure after). We also mentioned getting vegan tenders for Finn for dinner. Fast forward to us getting a plate with three bowls on it, one with plain chickpeas, another with sautéed mushrooms, and another filled with tenders. We were thoroughly confused and thought “are we supposed to make out own curry?”.

But then we got a plate with an okra curry in it for us as well (again no chapati). We have no idea what happened this night, but we were thankful that the entree here was actually good. This curry was my least favorite, I am just not a big okra person. We gave the bowl of tenders to Finn to enjoy (since it was supposed to be his dinner). So this is one of those “be thorough but also specific when pre-ordering” warnings. We laughed about it when it happened, I still find it funny. We weren’t starving so it’s okay.

Breakfast

For breakfast each day we had a pre-ordered meal. You have the option of dining in the buffet or at the sit down restaurant for your breakfast. We chose to eat at 1923 every morning as the sit down restaurants are so much less chaotic than the buffet.

Each day we ordered a vegan omelet which they make with Just Egg. Each day it looked completely different but each day it tasted great. The “egg” is super fluffy, the veggies are cooked well, and you get a HUGE omelet. You can choose what you want it in so my order is mushrooms, spinach, vegan cheese. Corey’s is the same plus onions and peppers.

You can also order off the menu here which is where you can get a fruit plate and hash browns. We only got hash browns the first day, but opted for fruit each day. One day I was able to get Finn a bowl of strawberries as he didn’t care for the fruit plate.

We asked if we could get avocado toast and were first told that they only do that for Concierge room guests at their lounge. So I asked if we could just have avocado and we’d make our own toast. That seemed to work so we had avocado for toast most mornings as well as our omelets. I always recommend pre-ordering breakfast, but you can also get a vegan omelet on the buffet upon request.

We did also get oat milk each morning with our coffee and a soy milk cup for Finn each morning as well. They also had almond milk, so it’s nice to see options now instead of just soy.

On the last morning you can choose to dine with your servers one last time. Usually we can’t pre-order for this, but we stop by anyway as a goodbye and to get some coffee and toast before driving home. We did find out this time there was an option we could get modified! There was a veggie wrap with tofu and eggs and our server was able to get it made without eggs for us. We were pleasantly surprised and actually really enjoyed it.

Additional Cost Food Options

While most food is included on Disney Cruise Line, there are a few exceptions. The most common being the adult-only dining options onboard. While we didn’t do that, we did eat at Keg & Compass a few times, which is a lounge. This lounge had some really neat theming and was mostly like a pub vibe.

Keg & Compass

We tried both the vegan options listed on the menu and modified another as well. Our first visit we tried the Plant-based Fishless Fish and Chips. It was just gardein Fishless Fillets, but they were nice and crispy like from Rose & Crown. They came with super dry potato rectangles (I don’t even want to call them chips they were so bad) and a “tartar sauce” that was probably actually vegan ranch. This was an easy snack to share since we had late dinner. I would get these again.

We came back and got the Plant-Based Chicken Tenders which gets your 10 tenders and dipping sauces. Ours was the ranch (which is why we think they were the same, they tasted the same) and the sweet chili. They seemed like they were just baked, but that was fine with us. We shared this with Finn post kids club and destroyed all these tenders.

We also decided to unload the Loaded Potato Puffs. The bowl of tots we got was ridiculous, it was probably a full pound of tater tots. They were nice and crispy and had a good amount of salt on them. Considering we had to pay money for the options here, you really get your moneys worth!

Joyful Sweets

Another place where you can choose to pay for food is at Joyful Sweets which is the ice cream parlor onboard. They had both vanilla and chocolate vegan ice cream here. It was super creamy and Finn enjoyed his big scoop!

Castaway Cay

Disney Cruise Line has its own private island destination that all Bahamian sailings go to called Castaway Cay. While docked here you can enjoy lunch on the island at Cookie’s BBQ. Usually I pre-order here, but this last time I didn’t think I needed to since they’ve had Impossible Burgers here on my last two sailings in the last year.

Little did I know is that they only bring Impossible Burgers on the island if they were pre-ordered and don’t have a stock of them at all. But this ended up not being an issue as they still have the vegan veggie burger on the island. If this was 5 years ago I probably wouldn’t have wanted it, but with everything being faux meat these days the vegan veggie burger actually sounded great. So we ate those, fruit, and chips. There is also a vegan chili on the buffet but it was too hot for chili.

Major takeaways

In terms of food, this sailing wasn’t my favorite. A lot of I think has to do with it being a new ship and not everyone being aware of what they have, dealing with special diets, and overall newness of the staff. Our pre-ordering wasn’t as good as usual, but neither was our dinner service in general. I feel like DCL is currently severely understaffed, which led us to be overlooked and forgotten (waters left unfilled, no menus passed out for dessert for our table mates, no bartender to come over and take our order, etc).

One thing that I really missed on this ship that the others have was the Senses Juice Bar and the quick service location in Flo’s with pre-made salads and fruit bowls (and you can get veggie wraps made there too). I felt like everything we ate was super heavy and processed. I left craving fresh fruit and vegetables. When we searched Marceline Market for options we saw the smallest pre-made salad bowls, so we couldn’t even build our own salads there.

Another big thing was that a lot of drink garnishes weren’t listed. Corey ordered a few old fashions from various locations, one had a piece of bacon on top (not in it, but on top of the glass), another had an orange with chocolate in it. So I highly recommend asking what the garnishes are if you’re ordering a cocktail.

I feel like they can only improve from here, but I didn’t feel that this cruise had the same level of service and food quality that my previous Disney sailings have had. My biggest recommendation is to be patient and be very thorough about what you are requesting if making specialty dining requests. Another recommendation would be to ask for multiple things, if they can’t accommodate your first request, they may be able to do the other. (Ex: I ordered a vegan omelet for breakfast for the first morning and said if they didn’t have that I would like avocado toast).

For vegan kids always pre-order for dinner. We usually went with veggies, fries, and a main. The kids options on the menu are rarely vegetarian let alone vegan. If your kid can have peanuts Uncrustables are usually available as well. One night we did pasta with tomato sauce, another was tenders, and another he didn’t want to go and went to the kids club and ate at Keg & Compass with us before.

We really did enjoy the ship and it’s offerings. We watched the Little Mermaid and Aladdin shows and enjoyed popcorn while doing it (same as in the parks). Finn beat me on the Incredi-Games course. The kids club set up here was really neat, and Finn loved the slide from the atrium into the club. I want to give this ship another shot, but I’m going to wait a year or so to do that. Hope this helps guide you into sailing on the new Disney Wish!

Watch Part 1 of our cruise here!